I was having a chat with a young lad who is temping in my section at work today. He’s actually on an Army scholarship at University and will be enrolling in Sandhurst on the completion of his degree in 18 months time.
His ambition, on passing out from Sandhurst, is to join the Paras. After some ribbing about throwing himself out of the rear of a perfectly good aircraft with nothing more than a table cloth to support him, we chatted about the fact that the idea of mass parachute operations are probably a thing of the past, and the more effective way of getting large numbers of troops into action in a specific area, would be by helicopter.
This got us talking about the last time mass parachute operations were under taken, I think it would be Suez, but am not sure. I would think this is at least the last British large scale drop, and am pretty sure that the Americans relied solely on Helicopters in Vietnam and didn’t venture in to the realms of the large scale parachute drops behind enemy lines because of the inherent hazards of troops being scattered over a large area, it was more effective to put them in by helicopter.
However I may be wrong, so can anyone give us both an idea of when the last large scale parachute operations were undertaken.
By: Moggy C - 30th March 2006 at 14:21
a few of the men were wounded even before exiting the aircraft. Many of the C-141 aircraft also came back with bullet holes in them.
John
Hmm, sounds very much like accidental discharges 😮
Moggy 😉 (Note smiley)
By: Peter Mills - 30th March 2006 at 13:57
Charley,
You’re quire right the Turkish army did drop a large number of paras on the plain between Nicosia and the Kyrenia mountains. A well known ITN reporter was surrounded by them when his car broke down on the way to the site of the sea borne invasion. The footage from the incident, along with many others was given to British Forces and shown in cinemas throughout the SBA region a few months later.
By: Charley - 30th March 2006 at 12:21
I seem to recall that the Turkish army dropped paratroopers on Cyprus in 1974. I might be wrong, though.
By: Downlands Dave - 30th March 2006 at 09:07
The French dropped 650 paras of 2 REP onto Kolwezi, Congo, May 19, 1978 following an insurgency.
More here
By: mexicanbob - 27th March 2006 at 17:28
We (C-17s) dropped 1,000 troops from the 173rd Airborn Brigade into Northern Iraq at the end of March 2003. We also dropped lots of equipment that same night as well.
By: jpeters - 27th March 2006 at 16:30
Back in 1994 when I was staioned at Fort Bragg I took part in a large scale mass parachute drop (at night) with approximately 750 soldiers. We were told at the time that it was the largest single drop at Fort Bragg in nearly 5 years. It was mass confusion…but also a lot of fun.
By: mike currill - 27th March 2006 at 16:25
I can’t vouch for drops into action but the largest drop I saw was in Germany in the ’80s. A mixed fleet of Starlifters and Galaxies, I think about 9 of each, did a mass drop during a military training exercise. Isaw them but unfortunately did not have a camera with me. Quite an impressive sight.
By: jpeters - 27th March 2006 at 16:12
I spent 9 years in the United States Army and jumped out of airplanes while assigned to the 18th Airborne Corp located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which is where the famed 82nd Airborne is also located.
There was an airborne drop in Grenada by one of the Army Ranger battalions. They took the airfield which enabled the other paratroopers to land at the airfield instead of jumping.
Probably the last large US “combat” jump was in 1989 during the Panama invasion. If I’m not mistaken they dropped an entire battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division. I served with a few of the men that participated in this night drop and they said a few of the men were wounded even before exiting the aircraft. Many of the C-141 aircraft also came back with bullet holes in them.
John
By: Maple 01 - 26th March 2006 at 09:57
Dodn’t the Americans jump in Grenada?
By: JDK - 26th March 2006 at 09:11
Another contender would be the making of “A Bridge Too Far” in 1977! The droppers in that were regualr British Army Paras IIRC.
By: Dimitri Hackx - 26th March 2006 at 08:34
Last large scale para-drop happened in Iraq (North) to retake an airfield. In 1978, belgian paratroopers were droppen Congo/Zaïre.
Greetz,
Dimitri
By: Mpacha - 25th March 2006 at 14:27
During Operation Reindeer 1978, South Africa dropped four companies of paratroopers some 250km inside Angola.
By: DaveF68 - 24th March 2006 at 23:15
Was it not a hostage rescue operation for the female soldier that was captured in Iraq?
I’m also sure one of teh airfields was secured by a para drop
By: Aeronut - 24th March 2006 at 21:30
Suez was notable not only for the last mass para drop into action by UK forces but also for the first occasion when Helicopter air assault took place (Not as the Americans claim a decade later in SE Asia).
Choice of method depends on range although these days concentarion of troops on the ground is also a factor, modern tactical transports have too fast a drop speed and the result is a long DZ with a thin spread of troops. Add to this the fact that large Helos are expensive and it might be time for the Assault glider to make a comeback.
By: Andy in Beds - 24th March 2006 at 21:10
Suez affair, 1956??
There was a parachute drop there.
A.
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March 24, 2006 at 8:08 pm